Page 14 of Rebel Mate

of my head like I was treasured. His heat seeped into me, and I realized this place was cold. Scary and horrible and cold. And I very much needed to be warm.

Long moments passed, and I kissed him back, not even taking time to wonder why he was kissing me here, now. I rolled the taste of him around on my tongue. His flavor was like exotic whiskey and man. I wondered what he’d been drinking to make him so… delicious or if it was just him.

I melted. My mind screamed at me that this was insane, but my body and my soul had taken enough for the day. Both needed one good moment to rest. To heal. To not be scared out of our collective fucking mind because within two minutes of transporting off of Earth, life had been one hell after another.

“Gara.” Isaak tore his mouth from mine, and I would have slumped into the wall next to me if not for his hands still wrapped around me. “Fark.” His dark eyes roved over my face, rested on my lips as if he wanted to go back for seconds. And thirds. “I should not have done that.”

I blinked. Tried to think. Found the task to be extremely difficult while drowning in his stare. I licked my lips, trying to get more of his taste. “Why did you?”

“We are being hunted.” He used his gaze to motion over my shoulder, and I turned my head as far as his grip in my hair would allow to see two frighteningly massive aliens wearing red arm bands, waving weapons around and yelling at a small group of people. “They are looking for a couple fleeing, not kissing.”

I blinked, tried to clear my muzzy head. “These are the people who work for Cerberus,” I said, trying to understand.

He nodded. “Cerberus is the leader of the Cerberus legion on Rogue 5. To you, it means nothing. To the rest of the galaxy, it means trouble. Big trouble. The red arm band signifies their allegiance to him, to the legion and to all they stand for, none of it good.”

The fantasy bubble burst, and my brain took control in one second flat. “Where is your ship?” I didn’t pull away from him because I didn’t want to move enough to draw attention. We were in trouble here. The kiss might have delayed the bad guys seeing us while doing a quick scan of the busy landing bay, but we wouldn't be able to hide forever. And there were probably more of the bad guys from this… Cerberus legion coming.

Using my hair, he gently turned my face toward him. “Behind me. Three docks down on the left.”

Without moving my head, I peeked around the corner wall, where we’d been hiding in a kind of nook lined with beams, to see spaceship-sized parking spaces painted on the floor in bright, reflective orange. Each space had a strange set of symbols on them. The ship he’d indicated was smaller than the rest. Much smaller. “The little one?”

His spine stiffened, and his chest rose, rubbing against my all-too sensitive nipples. I drew in a sharp breath as he answered me. “My ship is built for stealth.” His voice was low and practically snarled. Yeah, even guys in space had size issues.

“Okay. But can it make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs?” I couldn't help myself. I was feeling the Star Wars, Princess Lea vibe and had to quote her.

His brows drew down. “What is a Kessel Run? It is not in any sector I know of.”

I shook my head, realizing watching science fiction and living it were two different things entirely. “Nevermind.” Stealth sounded good to me. “How do we get over there without getting killed? Or worse… captured?”

His mouth opened in surprise at my questions but continued to look down at me, and his gaze lingered on my still wet lips. “We run.”

“What if someone tries to stop us?” I looked around his shoulder again. Leaned farther out to get a better look at the rest of the landing bay. There were probably half a dozen aliens of various sorts standing between us and his ship. None of them had red arm bands, but that didn’t mean much as far as I was concerned.

“We shoot them.”

Shoot them. God.

All I’d wanted to do was settle in with a nice mate. Nothing more. Shooting people was a main reason I’d left Earth. I was right back where I started from except now, I was in a place I didn’t know, with customs and rules that were over my head. This was worse than home.

No, Boston wasn’t home any longer. I could never go back. I wanted to cry. This was just too much for one fucking day. I was used to dealing with a lot of shit at one time, but I was approaching overload. I licked my lips again. “I don’t have a gun.”

He grinned and tapped his thigh, which I had to admit looked mighty sexy with a holster strapped to it and a weapon that might just save us. “I get the ion pistol. Time for you to use that titan stick, gara.”

“It’s Zara,” I corrected. “Zara with a Z.”

His answer was the way the corner of his mouth tipped up before giving me a quick kiss on the lips. I didn’t have the heart to protest. “Ready?”

I took a deep breath and checked in with myself. Was I ready? No. Not really. My heart was pounding, my palms were sweaty, my nipples were still hard from his kiss, and despite every ounce of good sense, I was putting my life in the hands of a complete stranger that I’d known all of ten or fifteen minutes. Oh, and I might have to fight my way out of here with a cattle prod while he killed alien bad guys.

But if he got killed, I was done for. I had no clue how to fly, and I’d be stuck in this crappy place until I was caught. It would only be a matter of time. “Yes. I’m ready.”

I sooo wasn’t ready.

He nodded, pushed me gently away from him, so he could pull the space gun from the holster. Yeah, still sexy.

Before we moved, I had to know. I gripped his arm. “Who are you, Isaak? What are you doing here in this place if you hate it so much? Are you a space pirate or what?”

He pressed a finger to my lips. “Later, gara. First, we escape. Then we talk.”

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